Erik Satie and Friends | Sony 88875177492

Erik Satie and Friends

Label: Sony

Cat No: 88875177492

Format: CD

Number of Discs: 13

Release Date: 1st April 2016

Contents

Works

Chabrier, Alexis Emmanuel

L'Ile heureuse
Pieces pittoresques (10)
» no.10 Scherzo-valse
Valses romantiques (3)
Villanelle des petits canards

Debussy, Claude

Beau Soir
Epigraphes antiques (6)
L'Echelonnement des haies
Le Promenoir des deux amants
Petite Suite
Preludes (12), Book 1
» no.8 La fille aux cheveux de lin (The girl with the flaxen hair)
Reverie

Faure, Gabriel

Dolly Suite, op.56
Impromptus (6)
» no.3 in A flat major, op.34
Nocturne no.6 in D flat major, op.63
Pavane, op.50

Francaix, Jean

L'Horloge de Flore

Ibert, Jacques

Symphonie concertante for oboe and string orchestra

Milhaud, Darius

Concertino d'automne, op.309

Poulenc, Francis

Calligrammes (7), FP140
Main dominee par le coeur, FP135
Miroirs brulants: 2 melodies de Paul Eluard, FP98
» no.1 Tu vois le feu du soir
Mouvements perpetuels (3)
Nocturnes (8)
» no.1 in C major
Pieces (3)
» no.2 Toccata
Poemes (4) de Guillaume Apollinaire, FP58
Sonata for piano 4 hands, FP8
Suite francaise

Ravel, Maurice

Histoires naturelles (5)
Introduction and Allegro for harp, flute, clarinet and string quartet
Le Tombeau de Couperin (orchestra)
Le Tombeau de Couperin
» IV Rigaudon
Miroirs
» Alborada del gracioso
Pavane pour une infante defunte (piano)
Pavane pour une infante defunte

Saint-Saens, Camille

Piano Concerto no.4 in C minor, op.44

Satie, Erik

Avant-dernieres pensees (3)
Chapitres tournes en tous sens
» Celle qui parle trop
Croquis et agaceries d'un gros bonhomme en bois
Descriptions automatiques
Embryons desseches
En habit de cheval: Divertissement pour piano a quatre mains
Gnossiennes (6)
» no.1 Lent
» no.2 Avec etonnement
» no.3 Lent
» no.4
» no.5
Gymnopedies (3) (arr. Debussy)
Gymnopedies (3)
Je te veux
L'omnibus automobile
La Diva de l'Empire
Le Chapelier
Le Piege de Meduse (Sept 'toutes petites danses')
Ludions
» Chanson du chat
Melodies (3) (1916)
Morceaux en forme de poire (3)
Nocturnes (5)
» no.1 (a Madame Marcelle Meyer)
» no.3 'Un peu mouvemente'
Parade
Poudre d'or
Premier Menuet
Relache
Sarabandes (3)
Sonatine bureaucratique
Sports et Divertissements
Tendrement
Valses (3) distinguees du precieux degoute
Veritables Preludes flasques (pour un chien)
Vieux sequins et vieilles cuirasses
» Danse cuirasee

Artists

William Bennett (flute)
Pierre Bernac (baritone)
Gaby Casadesus (piano)
Robert Casadesus (piano)
Regine Crespin (soprano)
Philippe Entremont (piano)
Robert Fizdale (piano)
Arthur Gold (piano)
John de Lancie (oboe)
William Masselos (piano)
Francis Poulenc (piano)
George Reeves (piano)
Jenny Tourel (mezzo-soprano)
Daniel Varsano (piano)
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Houston Symphony Orchestra
London Symphony Orchestra
National Philharmonic Orchestra
New York Philharmonic Orchestra
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

Conductors

Philippe Entremont
Charles Gerhardt
Serge Koussevitzky
Efrem Kurtz
Andre Previn
Artur Rodzinski

Works

Chabrier, Alexis Emmanuel

L'Ile heureuse
Pieces pittoresques (10)
» no.10 Scherzo-valse
Valses romantiques (3)
Villanelle des petits canards

Debussy, Claude

Beau Soir
Epigraphes antiques (6)
L'Echelonnement des haies
Le Promenoir des deux amants
Petite Suite
Preludes (12), Book 1
» no.8 La fille aux cheveux de lin (The girl with the flaxen hair)
Reverie

Faure, Gabriel

Dolly Suite, op.56
Impromptus (6)
» no.3 in A flat major, op.34
Nocturne no.6 in D flat major, op.63
Pavane, op.50

Francaix, Jean

L'Horloge de Flore

Ibert, Jacques

Symphonie concertante for oboe and string orchestra

Milhaud, Darius

Concertino d'automne, op.309

Poulenc, Francis

Calligrammes (7), FP140
Main dominee par le coeur, FP135
Miroirs brulants: 2 melodies de Paul Eluard, FP98
» no.1 Tu vois le feu du soir
Mouvements perpetuels (3)
Nocturnes (8)
» no.1 in C major
Pieces (3)
» no.2 Toccata
Poemes (4) de Guillaume Apollinaire, FP58
Sonata for piano 4 hands, FP8
Suite francaise

Ravel, Maurice

Histoires naturelles (5)
Introduction and Allegro for harp, flute, clarinet and string quartet
Le Tombeau de Couperin (orchestra)
Le Tombeau de Couperin
» IV Rigaudon
Miroirs
» Alborada del gracioso
Pavane pour une infante defunte (piano)
Pavane pour une infante defunte

Saint-Saens, Camille

Piano Concerto no.4 in C minor, op.44

Satie, Erik

Avant-dernieres pensees (3)
Chapitres tournes en tous sens
» Celle qui parle trop
Croquis et agaceries d'un gros bonhomme en bois
Descriptions automatiques
Embryons desseches
En habit de cheval: Divertissement pour piano a quatre mains
Gnossiennes (6)
» no.1 Lent
» no.2 Avec etonnement
» no.3 Lent
» no.4
» no.5
Gymnopedies (3) (arr. Debussy)
Gymnopedies (3)
Je te veux
L'omnibus automobile
La Diva de l'Empire
Le Chapelier
Le Piege de Meduse (Sept 'toutes petites danses')
Ludions
» Chanson du chat
Melodies (3) (1916)
Morceaux en forme de poire (3)
Nocturnes (5)
» no.1 (a Madame Marcelle Meyer)
» no.3 'Un peu mouvemente'
Parade
Poudre d'or
Premier Menuet
Relache
Sarabandes (3)
Sonatine bureaucratique
Sports et Divertissements
Tendrement
Valses (3) distinguees du precieux degoute
Veritables Preludes flasques (pour un chien)
Vieux sequins et vieilles cuirasses
» Danse cuirasee

Artists

William Bennett (flute)
Pierre Bernac (baritone)
Gaby Casadesus (piano)
Robert Casadesus (piano)
Regine Crespin (soprano)
Philippe Entremont (piano)
Robert Fizdale (piano)
Arthur Gold (piano)
John de Lancie (oboe)
William Masselos (piano)
Francis Poulenc (piano)
George Reeves (piano)
Jenny Tourel (mezzo-soprano)
Daniel Varsano (piano)
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Houston Symphony Orchestra
London Symphony Orchestra
National Philharmonic Orchestra
New York Philharmonic Orchestra
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

Conductors

Philippe Entremont
Charles Gerhardt
Serge Koussevitzky
Efrem Kurtz
Andre Previn
Artur Rodzinski

About

Erik Satie, that endearing French (though actually half-Scottish) revolutionary, has been credited with starting European musical history all over again. In 2016 the musical world will celebrate his 150th birthday. Sony Classical is marking the occasion with a 13-CD box set of his captivatingly idiosyncratic piano pieces, songs and ballets, which places the composer in his unique cultural context – the astonishing artistic effervescence of early 20th-century Paris.

Satie was a famous eccentric, who wore only grey velvet suits, ate only white food and founded his own one-member church. He supported himself (barely) by playing at cabarets. It was there he met Claude Debussy, who became a close friend and fell under Satie’s influence. Those cabaret evenings can be detected in Satie’s own charming songs, performed in this collection by some of the finest French singers of the 20th century: baritone Pierre Bernac, accompanied by Francis Poulenc, and soprano Régine Crespin, accompanied by Philippe Entremont. Satie also left his mark on the music of Maurice Ravel and the young composers known as Les Six, including Poulenc. Debussy, Ravel and Poulenc are all featured in this set along with Satie. Indeed CD 1 is a historic 1950 recording of Francis Poulenc playing not only his own piano pieces but also those of his friend Erik Satie.

Satie also befriended enfant terrible Jean Cocteau after the poet-artist was smitten with the composer’s Three Pieces in the Shape of a Pear – a work included twice in this collection in performances by pianists Robert and Gaby Casadesus (a historic mono recording as well as a modern stereo one). Other typically oddball Satie titles include Bureaucratic Sonatina, The Trap of Medusa, The Woman Who Talks Too Much, Veritable Flabby Preludes (for a Dog), Automatic Descriptions and Desiccated Embryos – all heard here in authoritative performances by French pianists Philippe Entremont and Daniel Varsano. In 1917 Satie collaborated with Cocteau and Pablo Picasso on the ballet Parade for Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, resulting in a scandal that led to Satie spending eight days in jail for being a “cultural anarchist”. After the premiere, Cocteau overheard a woman say, “If I’d known it was going to be as silly as that, I’d have brought the kids.” Satie’s disarmingly surrealistic score for Parade, which includes a typewriter, a foghorn and milk bottles, makes two appearances in the new Sony set, with Philippe Entremont conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in 1970 and a historic recording from 1949 with the Houston Symphony conducted by ballet specialist Efrem Kurtz.

Satie was largely forgotten after his death in 1925. But he enjoyed a renaissance in the 1960s and was elevated to cult status with the imprimatur of avant-garde composer John Cage, who put on concerts of his works and declared him indispensable to the development of contemporary music. Pieces such as Vexations – a page of music with an instruction to be played 840 times – are considered forerunners of Minimalism. Satie’s most popular piano pieces, such as the simple, haunting Gymnopédies (1888) and Gnossiennes (1890) – which evoke classical ancient Greece through the simplicity, repetition and modal harmonies – have become universally familiar from their use in TV adverts and movies. Debussy’s orchestrations of the Gymnopédies are also found in this collection.

Each recording in this exceptional new set of 13 CDs – featuring facsimile LP-sleeves – comes from the best source. Five of these discs, including a bonus of historic mono recordings, are essentially appearing on CD for the first time.

Set contents:
CD1: ML 4399 - “Meet the composer”: Francis Poulenc plays Poulenc & Satie
CD2: ML 4484 - “Soirée Francaise”: Pierre Bernac (baritone) with Francis Poulenc (piano) in songs by Poulenc, Debussy, Chabrier and Satie
CD3: ML 4854 - Gold & Fitzdale play music for 2 pianos by Debussy, Poulenc, Milhaud & Satie
CD4: MS 6323 - Robert and Gaby Casadesus – French music for piano four hands by Debussy, Chabrier, Satie & Fauré
CD5: LSC-2945 - Music from France for oboe and orchestra – John de Lancie (oboe), London Symphony Orchestra/André Previn
CD6: LSC-3127 - William Masselos (piano) plays Satie
CD7: M 30294 - Philippe Entremont conducts Satie
CD8: M 32070 - Philippe Entremont (piano): “A la Française” - Debussy, Ravel, Chabrier, Satie, Fauré, Poulenc
CD9: M 36666 - Régine Crespin (soprano) & Philippe Entremont (piano): Songs by Ravel & Satie
CD10: M 36694 - Daniel Varsano: Satie Piano Music
CD11: M 37247 - Philippe Entremont plays Satie
CD12: ARL1-2783 - “The French Touch”: National Philharmonic Orchestra/Charles Gerhardt – Music by Ravel, Satie, Fauré
CD13: Early Recordings

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